“We were concerned about where this pandemic was going,” says Mike Sangster, the CEO for TotalEnergies (formerly Total) in Nigeria. “We managed to get our hands on a few PCR machines [for Covid-19 testing], some of which we used, and two of which we donated to Rivers State. We also donated an oxygen plant to Lagos State.”
Despite the lockdown, thanks to TotalEnergies’s 1,300 staff and many contractors “we didn’t lose a barrel because of the pandemic,” says Sangster. Nigeria was short of revenue, “so we thought it was important to keep government revenue flowing.”